Malachi 4:5: Difference between revisions

In the Greek, Jesus states “Elijah is coming” and then adds και ἀποκαταστήσει πάντα, “and he will restore everything.” The verb ἀποκαταστήσει, “will restore,” is drawn verbatim from the Septuagint version of  Malachi 3:23 (there is no Malach chapter four in the Hebrew scriptures).  However, the object clause of that passage is “the heart of the father to the son and the heart of a man to his neighbor”. The future tense, therefore, does not suggest that Jesus expects a future return of John the Baptist. The restoration of “everything” (πάντα) must here refer not to the eschatological renewal of the present order itself (which would make Elijah the Messiah himself, rather than the forerunner of the Messiah), as, for example, apparently in Acts 1:6 (and cf. especially the cognate noun ἀποκατάστασις, “restoration” or “establishing,” in Acts 3:21 in an allusion to the return of Jesus), but to a preparatory work of repentance and renewal (as in the Malachi passage; see especially Luke 1:17 and cf. Sir 48:10). Only an interpretation of this kind can make possible Jesus’ identification of John the Baptist with Elijah in the verse that follows. In short, Jesus responds initially by fully agreeing with the scribes in their understanding of Malachi’s prophecy that Elijah is to come and accomplish his preparatory work. It is only in the astonishing conclusion now to be drawn that Jesus parts company with the scribes. <ref>Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 14–28, vol. 33B, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 499.</ref>